The latest meeting of the Massachusetts Association of Professional Landscapers (MALP) proved once again to be the premier hub for the state's green industry to network, learn, and honor its finest. Held in Natick, the evening was a showcase of community strength, anchored by a prestigious award presentation and vital ecological insights, with a powerful showing from University of Massachusetts alumni and experts.
MALP offers consumers a safe way to find professionally skilled and trained landscapers in their local area, promotes the landscaping industry across New England, provides continuing education to professional landscapers, and ensures that the industry maintains standards enforcing the "triple bottom line" -- landscaping should be good for profits, people, and the planet.
This year, the Beacon Award -- the highest honor given by MALP to recognize members who inspire, challenge, and advance the landscape contracting profession in Massachusetts, was given to Robert Mann, a life-long professional in the green industries.
Mann is a distinguished dual alumnus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, having earned his 1982 associate degree in Turfgrass Management from Stockbridge School of Agriculture, and then seamlessly transferring to complete his 1985 bachelor's degree in Agricultural Economics.
His education granted him impressive flexibility to take jobs across the green industries as they developed. Mann spent around a decade as president of Weed & Feed Professional Services, and nearly another decade as an agronomist for Lawn Dawg Services.
His experience, and his interest in developing professional standards, led him to take on roles in the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP), strengthening relationships between the green industries and the 50 state governments. For the past 4 years, he has served as the Director of Technical and Regulatory Affairs for NALP. He also chairs the Pesticide Policy Coalition, ensuring sustainable pest management practices in both the landscaping and turfgrass industries.
"UMass and Stockbridge were represented strongly!" reports Mike Davidsohn, who directs the Stockbridge Landscape Contracting program and is also an alum, was on hand with a state-wide network of professionals to congratulate our distinguished Stockbridge alumnus.
MALP meetings are vital for fostering lifelong professional connections and driving environmental stewardship forward. Beyond the celebrations, the event featured a forward-looking educational session focused on sustainable landscape management. MALP also offers state certification as a landscape professional, and the Stockbridge associate degree in Landscape Contracting prepares students to sit for the certification exams MALP designs and maintains.
Reflecting the sustainability-centered lens on landscaping developed by the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, MALP encouraged landscape professionals to see pollinator-friendly practices as both "client-facing solutions" and "thoughtful, environmentally responsible enhancements to the landscapes you design and maintain."
UMass Extension educator Nicole Bell, a prominent pollinator specialist and the principal architect of the UMass Pollinator Steward Certification program, shared actionable strategies for designing and maintaining pollinator-friendly landscapes. Bell's work focuses on outreach and education related to wild bees and other flying pollinators. Before joining UMass she worked at the Oregon State University Honeybee Lab, and conducted research into how bees are affected by wildfire severity.
Noting that modern landscape professionals are in a position to "do good" for the environment on a daily basis in the regular course of their work, Bell detailed how sustainability-centered contractors can protect New England's diverse wild bee species and native insects through intentional plant selection and ecological design. These values are central to the sustainability lens we develop and teach in the Stockbridge Landscape Contracting associate degree program.
From honoring a titan of the turf industry, to learning cutting-edge sustainability techniques, the event underscored the long-standing position of Stockbridge and UMass at the vanguard of sustainability research.